By Zephyria 
Corso quietly sheathed his sword and took a step back. Quickly regaining my composure, I approached the severed, throbbing plant to examine the identity of what had attacked me.
Then Ardian, who had come to my side, said.
“It’s a Roselia.”
“Roselia?”
“Yeah. It’s a Fiend flower that only lives in contaminated lands.”
I had heard that ‘Fiendified plants and animals live in contaminated lands,’ and it seemed that this was what they were talking about. It was like a carnivorous plant. The difference was that it was large enough to attack humans and actually eat them. As I dusted myself off and stood up again, Ardian, who was standing next to me, turned around first.
“Let’s be careful. There will be more inside.”
“We should.”
We continued to walk along the well-maintained path.
We were attacked several more times along the way, but there were no problems as Corso and Sword were able to handle them sufficiently.
How much time had passed? Ardian, who was walking ahead, stopped. Looking down at his feet, the well-maintained path ended there.
“The road ends here. From here on, it’s ‘uncharted territory.'”
So, the real investigation started now.
“The reason why a proper investigation hasn’t been carried out so far due to inexplicable attacks is because of what’s happening inside here?”
“It seems so. Nothing happened until here.”
I listened to that answer and cast my gaze far away. What on earth was happening inside there that the Hunters who had come before couldn’t properly investigate?
Currently, I had achievements that were not much different from those of the advance Hunters. Some of them had even died, so I, whose physical strength was similar, needed to be careful beyond this point. Almost no one could beat me in terms of Magic proficiency, but my weak achievement was a major flaw.
‘It’s about time to raise my achievement to 5 stars.’
But I still hadn’t found a way to endure a Black Mana Heart containing 5-star Mana with a human body. The fact that I couldn’t move forward as freely as before because I had possessed a weak human body was frustrating.
“Ray, what are you thinking about?”
Ardian spoke as if whispering. I withdrew my gaze from the distance and started walking again.
“It’s nothing.”
After that, we walked aimlessly forward without setting a destination. The fragments of buildings that had rotted away to the point where almost nothing remained were no longer visible, and only withered land and sparsely growing tufts of grass were seen. It was as if it hadn’t rained in this area for years. Even the desert wasn’t this desolate.
“It’s a bit hot. Do you want some water?”
“No. I’m still okay.”
When I refused Ardian’s offer as he handed me the water bottle he had taken out, Corso took a few sips of water instead. It was getting hotter as we went further inside, and the cause seemed to be in the ‘ground’ rather than the sunlight.
‘The heat rising from the ground is getting stronger…’
I looked down at the cracked ground. Hot steam, shimmering like a mirage, was rising through the cracks. It was an incomprehensible phenomenon.
“Heat is rising from below. Do you know anything?”
I turned to Ardian and asked, meaning for him to explain if he knew anything. Ardian, who met my eyes, smiled with a smile resembling sunlight.
“Remember when I explained earlier that eroded land exhibits various phenomena? This is one of those phenomena. The special fluid of the Fiends that has seeped into the earth is constantly generating heat from within.”
“Isn’t it been more than 100 years since the war ended?”
“It would be more accurate to say that it’s only been 100 years.”
He added that this heat had also weakened a lot over time. It was a terrible thing. The good thing was that this heat itself was not harmful even if it touched the body.
“This is probably only happening here, so it won’t be hot if we go a little further. If it’s too hard, should we quickly get out with Blink?”
Then Ardian stretched out his arms and made a pose as if to carry me in his arms. For some reason, I felt angry. But I couldn’t use Blink Magic with my current achievement, so if I were to get out with Blink, I would have to entrust my body to him anyway.
“…Do you have to hold me like that?”
“Yes. Because I can’t hold you like a piece of luggage.”
“No. I’d rather you do that.”
“I don’t want to.”
I was frowning with reluctance when I suddenly felt a strange sense of incongruity and turned around. And for a moment, I doubted my eyes. Not far from here, there were a few blue trees and a spring that looked clear and clean.
‘Since when? I don’t think it was there until just now…’
It was like an oasis mirage.
I pointed to it, wondering inwardly.
“Look over there.”
Then Ardian also raised his head and looked beyond, blinking his eyes a couple of times. It wasn’t well expressed in his expression, but his face was closer to being embarrassed.
“Was there something like that here originally?”
“I don’t know.”
Perhaps it was an illusion created by someone.
There was also a high possibility that it was a trap.
Nevertheless, I was going to go and check it out myself. If it was really an illusion created by someone, I needed to find out what that entity was.
“I’m going to walk over there to check it out myself.”
Then Ardian lowered his hand and showed a sullen expression, but I pretended not to see it and took the first step. In the end, Ardian, who couldn’t beat my stubbornness, quietly followed me.
A moment later, we arrived at the location of the spring. Ardian, who looked around, squatted in front of the spring and scooped up water with his palm, muttering in bewilderment.
“This is….”
And I was feeling the bewilderment that he was feeling enough. The trees were shaking even though the wind wasn’t blowing, and I couldn’t feel the sound or smell of water even though I was near the water. It was too crude to call it an illusion created by Magic, and it was even absurd.
If there was a mirage that could be touched, this was probably how it would feel.
“It’s not an illusion created by Magic.”
Ardian, who was examining it, turned to me and said.
I had no objection because that was what I thought too.
“Is it a natural phenomenon that only occurs in this place?”
“Maybe. Or… a ‘special ability.'”
Special ability.
The eye ability that Corso had was also a special ability that was passed down through the bloodline and had a different principle from Magic. It was a plausible guess.
‘If this is an ability, where is the ability user?’
While I was thinking that, I felt a gaze and turned my head. And the moment I did, a shadow hidden behind a tree shot towards me at the speed of a bullet before I could even accurately identify it.
“……!”
It was very fast. It was so fast that my dynamic visual acuity couldn’t keep up, so I stepped back in hesitation. I was about to be attacked by something unknown when Ardian, who had come to my side, caught it as if snatching it before I was attacked.
“Ray, are you okay?”
Ardian’s urgent voice awakened my frozen mind. It had happened so quickly that I was just blinking my eyes repeatedly, racking my brain to figure out the situation.
“Sa, save me! I was wrong!”
A strange voice was shouting from somewhere. I wondered where this voice was coming from, and it was coming from Ardian. More precisely, it was coming from inside Ardian’s hand. It was coming from the hand that had snatched something that was flying towards me.
“……”
“……”
I exchanged glances with Ardian for a moment. Then Ardian opened his clenched hand, and something quickly jumped out from inside. It seemed to be trying to escape, but Ardian caught only the end of something again as if snatching it.
And when I looked closely at what was dangling from his fingertips….
“Kyaaak! Save me! I’m going to be eaten!”
The identity of something that had a speed that surprised me was a very small human… a dwarf.
“What is this tiny thing? Could it be a dwarf?”
“Hmm… it’s not a dwarf. They are also called dwarves, but they have a height and build that comes up to the knees of an adult male.”
Ardian muttered and shook his hand. The dwarf, who was hanging by his legs, screamed that he was dizzy. Dwarves, a race of blacksmiths with a much smaller height and sturdy body than humans and the best forging skills in the world.
That was the information I knew.
Certainly… it was strange for a dwarf to be this small. He seemed to be able to use the imperial language basically, but his accent was very strange, like a dialect from somewhere.
‘Is the size rather similar to a Spirit?’
But I could be sure that it wasn’t a Spirit.
I had seen it directly through Ibelia.
These didn’t have the semi-transparent feel of Spirits, and most crucially, they had horns on their heads, something Spirits didn’t have. Just then, I heard the sound of multiple somethings rushing over from the front, kicking up dust, so I turned to look.
The dust devil that had briefly risen in a haze subsided, revealing dwarves that looked exactly like the one Ardian was holding.
“No-ra! He’s our precious comrade-ra!”
“We won’t take your food, so please let him go-ra!”
They were clamoring at our feet.